Martin

Ladies and gents, here it is:

Sweet music to my ear! I've been playing coop tonight together With @Andy Johnsen up to E2M5, and o'boy what a pleasant surprise - we'll definitely finish the rest during the next week! So far Episode 2 holds up to a very strong episode one! Who needs Romero's Sigil when you guys have put this gem together?! Every doomer should immediately seize this fantastic Christmas present!

It would probably never happen, but it would be great fun if Anders some day could cope with his embarrassment and release the first version of AV from the juvenile years of 1996/97 when it was called Alien Vindicta. About 20 of these maps were scrapped, and they manifest how the quality bar was raised. So, why is AV in particular so well liked? I don't have the answer , but I'll argue for both timing and quality. Undoubtedly, AV seems to have had an impact on several of the larger upcoming megawads, in fact there has been a steady stream of tributing maps during all of these 17 years: Kama Sutra (2005), Deus Vult II (2008), Speed of Doom (2010), Epic 2 (2010), Resurgence (2014), Bloodstain (2016), Struggle (2018), and one can also ask if it was not for AV 20, we would probably never had any of the red hell maps in Scythe (2003) or the whole Egyptian episode in Scythe 2 (2005). Here is a list of the most obvious derivations, map by map (I'll just leave out DV II, since it's probably quicker to name the few maps in that wad which is not taking any inspiration from AV): 　 AV 6/24 --> Ksutra 18, 20 AV 11 --> Ksutra 5 AV 6 --> SoD 5 AV 20 --> Epic2 31, Strg 11, 29 AV 5 --> Resurge 23, Bstain 12, 14 AV 3 --> Bstain 2 　 Regarding the green torch in AV 01, I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned E4M1, since it is the same mechanic - action 23 in both maps (Catacombs is a SR lift!) and both maps have that orange sky. AV 01 was made in 1996 and I didn't know then that it would be the fist map in a megawad. However, this was up to debate in summer 2001 when the project was coming to its last stage. If I recall it correctly, I think we calculated with a danger that some people might think there was a bug in the first map and they would just lose interest and quit playing without seeing anything more of Alien Vendetta than map 01. I think Andy said something like, "if you can't find this green torch, you're not entitled to play AV, hell, you're not entitled to play Doom in the first place". We also thought it would be better to have people complaining over a green torching in map 1, and feel embarrassed over it later, than having people complaining over the green shootable torch in map 23 being to hard. None of the testers had any objections about the green torch, but one team meamber had. He had for some months misbehaved and during summer 2001 he also started leaking screenshots of map 20 on his own site (he had also demanded to see map 11, but this was kept a secret from him on purpose). The leaked screenshots had the consequence that he was kicked out, and keeping the green torch seemed like a good idea, internally it symbolized that these last maps were meant to be secret until deadline

This was all in all really good, man! Great work with the gameplay! Please note this: - Map 10: - a lower texture is missing. - Map 11: - sector tag 2 looks problematic on Coop (ambush with Cyber). If booth players die after this sector raises, there is no way to enter that area again, and the map will not be finishable, however if Linedef 655 were a SR instead of a S1, this problem would be solved.

Yes this is a known trick. I considered the red key area a bit too long for a Nightmare speedrun, so I implemented this shortcut. However, someone found a much cooler trick which I didn't know about, so its possible to finish the map in about a minute without doing the climb up to the castle.

Oh, is "cheesing" really an established term? I always thought cheesing was this It's all part of the deal to let the player finish the map in whatever way he wants to. If skillful speedrunners find creative shortcuts that's just cool. The most impressive record I've seen from somebody playing a map of mine is probably this. Sometimes it is in fact wonderful when a quick bastard invests all his time, effort an thought to skip the hole map an do it on nightmare mode, and his comment is just: "safety play..."

Your sins are forgiven! I don't know if an interview with me is the best format or the most natural pick of an interview candidate, but sure, we can talk, or we could also hang out... - why don't you come over to Stavanger for a summer LAN? We will arrange it just like we did back in the days, which also means: If you by the ticket, we'll pick you up at the airport, and accommodation is on us! If your plans for this summer are already set, the easiest way to talk to most of us in this thread is to go here: http://webchat.quakenet.org/ #Nightmare, or just send us individual messages. It's perhaps also possible to find more recordings from the old days, since Andy insisted on recording every deathmatch. Oh, boy, you are giving out all the compromising details about Andy's dirty apartment.

Anyway, only 15 minutes between number 2 and 3... and there mighty be some more in the future, when the right occasion is there...

Nope! Some posts got deleted during a DW server problem in 2002...

Hey sonny, I object to your history telling at 1.00! That picture is from a cold, dark Norwegian winters day, and that frozen pizza in the oven is mine! The bananas in the transparant bag are bought on ICA, and this is Andy's sordid little kitchen during the lan party in Desember 2000. I know, cause I was there! Bahdko had to travel all over the Atlantic to join us. Yeah, Andy has always been a grumpy guy

I`m sorry about that missing lower texture in my map11 Nemesis. I hope it doesn`t bother you too much:)